The United Nations food agency said on Thursday an acute shortage of cash threatened relief plans for tens of thousands of Angolans returning from neighbouring states, lured by the end of war in their homeland.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in South Africa it estimated it would need at least $136 million this year to feed about 1.4 million Angolans internally displaced or due to be brought back from camps in Zambia and Namibia this year.
That includes 166,000 Angolans scattered across southern Africa, and some - like those in Zambia - have been refugees for decades.
"The bottom line is that without food and resources, we simply can't do our job which is to ensure people living in some of the worst imaginable conditions are given a helping hand," said WFP Executive Director and UN special envoy James Morris.
"There is a massive need in southern Africa for international assistance and we all share a humanitarian obligation to make sure that hand of help is extended," Morris said.
Angola's three decades of civil war ended with the battlefield death of veteran rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in 2002.
Since then thousands of Angolan refugees have headed home to rebuild their lives after years of uncertainty in exile.
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